As you may have read in an earlier post, I had participated in a photoshoot for an upcoming awareness campaign that will be launching in Toronto very soon. Last week, I got a call from the ad agency asking if I’d be interested in doing the commercial shoot. How hard could this acting thing be, right ? They said it’d be a few lines to memorize, so not too hard.
I figured I’d have a few weeks or so to get prepared for this. I got the call on Wednesday ! The shoot was on Saturday and I got the script late Thursday. I had about 1 day to memorize, not a few lines, but 9 lines ! Talk about having a panic attack ! Thankfully, I got some great advice from some of my friends and I was hoping to rock this shoot with their techniques.
I arrived at Pie in the Sky studio Saturday a little earlier in hopes of getting into hair and make-up sooner. I had a ‘situation’ on my nose and figured the MUA would need some more time with it haha. It was snowing outside. As I arrived to the back door, I started to kick my boots against the wall to shake off all the snow. Unbeknownst to me, the film crew was right on the other side of the door filming another person. Thankfully, the tape wasn’t rolling. It was dead quiet in there on set and you could seriously hear a pin drop ! … Actually, it was so quite, you could hear a “GO TEAM CANADA” pin drop ! And hear I am, kicking my way into the set.
The girl before me was finishing up her part for the commercial. I was starting to get really uneasy knowing that it was going to be me standing on the marker very soon. After make-up and a few wardrobe changes, it was my turn to stand under the lights….the HOT lights ! I had a chance to speak to the awesome director who guided me through the whole process. I ran throught he script a few times. It was obvious I was talking too fast. The director stepped in and helped me with this. I think we shot for about 20 minutes or so. It was nerve racking and I was very self-conscious about my disposition and how I looked. Mentally, I was totally not prepared for this, but as prepared as I’ll ever be. There is definitely an art to acting. Getting out of your comfort zone is definitely harder than I thought. Overall, I think (and HOPE) it went well. Mad props to real actors out there ! You actors definitely earn your keep !
After the shoot, Eva, the MUA, asked if I wanted her to remove my make-up. I stupidly decided to keep it on b/c I thought I looked pretty damn good and my ‘situation’ was taken care of haha. So, I left the set and met up with a complete stranger downtown quickly..in public…with make-up on ! I didn’t really think too much about it. Then I stopped off at the grocery store to pick up some food. It wasn’t until I got home that Jeanette says to me, “Do you have blush on ???”. Oh sh*t ! Seriously ? She could totally tell that make-up was caked on ! Apparently, it was very obvious in regular lighting that I was wearing make-up ! No wonder everyone at the grocery store was staring at me !
Lesson learned…
Anyways, the print ads and commercial should out in the next few weeks and I should have a copy of them so I can blog it. Oh man, this is going to be a very humbling experience.
-Joee
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